AFEQ CNF-INQUAhttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 14:33:13 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8Discovery of the oldest lead pollution in humans: 250,000 yearshttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1415
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1415#respondTue, 13 Nov 2018 14:33:13 +0000https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1415Continue reading Discovery of the oldest lead pollution in humans: 250,000 years→]]>Analyzes performed on the teeth of two Neanderthal children from the archaeological site of Payre (Ardèche) and excavated by Marie-Hélène Moncel, CNRS researcher, attest to the oldest exposure to lead in humans. An international team of researchers measured the metal levels in the enamel of these teeth, dating back around 250,000 years, and showed that both children had been exposed to lead during their stays in cavities as suggested by the presence of lead mines within a radius of 25 kilometers. With teeth growing at the same rate as tree rings, researchers were able to show that children became ill during the cold season, and that one of the Neanderthals was born in the spring. By measuring barium concentrations, a marker of milk consumption, the researchers also found that one of the two children had been breastfed for up to two and a half years, and weaned in the fall. The study published on October 31, 2018 in Science Advances is a major contribution to Neanderthal childhood knowledge.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1415/feed0An explanation of the abrupt climate change cycles of the past 130,000 yearshttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1395
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1395#respondFri, 09 Nov 2018 12:29:53 +0000https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1395Continue reading An explanation of the abrupt climate change cycles of the past 130,000 years→]]>An international team(1) modeled the coupling between the extent of sea ice and marine ice shelves, and the temperature of the waters near the North Atlantic surface. This model explains the steep temperature changes in Greenland and the North Atlantic during the last ice age, between 130,000 and 15,000 years ago. It also reproduces the phase shift between the temperatures of the two hemispheres during this period, as estimated from measurements in ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica. This work should help assess the risk of such abrupt changes in the near future.

The last glacial interval was marked by abrupt climatic changes called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events. These events, characterized by significant temperature increases over Greenland up to 15°C in a few decades and a return to glacial conditions over several centuries, have been repeated many times during the last glacial cycle. However, the cause of these transitions and their out-of-phase relationship with corresponding events in Antarctica remains unclear. Indeed, a satisfactory theory of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles was still missing.

The team built a dynamic model to explain these DO events in Greenland, but also their counterparts observed in Antarctica. This model focuses on the interactions between ice sheets from the northern hemisphere ice caps (and more specifically Greenland), sea ice and ocean currents. It demonstrates that the repetitive nature and speed of the warming phase of DO events is based on the rapid retreat and slower regeneration of thick marine ice platforms, several hundred meters, and the much thiner sea ice, only a few meters around the caps of the northern hemisphere.

Variability of the last glacial interval as expressed by changes in oxygen isotope ratio (18O) obtained from two ice cores: blue in Greenland (NGRIP-North GReenland ice core project) and orange in Antarctica (WAIS ice core – West Antarctic ice sheet divide project). Age in thousands of years before the year 2000.

The proposed model successfully replicates the observed characteristics of changes in the oxygen isotope ratio, such as the sawtooth form of DO cycles (with sudden warming and slower cooling to glacier conditions), the intervals between successive DOs during the last 130 000 years, and also the phase shift of the climate signal observed in the ice cores of Greenland and Antarctica: when Greenland warmed, Antarctica cooled, and conversely, the abrupt warmings observed in Greenland not having their counterparts in Antarctica.

In addition, this study provides an explanation for abrupt climate changes and could thus help to more accurately assess the risk of abrupt climate transitions in the near future.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1395/feed0Call for papers for papers for the journal Méditerranée : “Littoral Landscapes: Evolution and Risk of Erosion of Heritage”https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1383
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1383#respondFri, 09 Nov 2018 12:00:31 +0000https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1383Continue reading Call for papers for papers for the journal Méditerranée : “Littoral Landscapes: Evolution and Risk of Erosion of Heritage”→]]>Call for papers for a special issue of the journal Méditerranée entitled “Coastal landscapes: evolution and risk of heritage erosion” (issue coordinators: Benoît Devillers, Pau Olmos Benlloch and Père Castanyer).

One of the forgotten planning policies related to the current retreat of the shorelines is the erosion of the natural, archaeological and geomorphological Heritage. At the European scale, several initiatives have highlighted the vulnerability of heritage to the effects of climate change and human pressure. The conservation and mediation of this fragile heritage are actual challenges. The protection of the archaeological heritage of the coastal area is lagging far behind marine and especially continental areas. The reasons are many: difficulty of excavations, high erosion rate, lack of definition of administrative skills and very strong land pressure.

Currently, several European research teams are working on coastal erosion and archaeological heritage, particularly on the Atlantic seaboard: ALeRT project (UMR 6566 CReAAH Rennes); Litaq (Ausonius, Bordeaux); SCHARP (University of Saint Andrews, Scotland); CITiZAN (Museum of London Archeology, England); Bregantia (INCIPIT, Galicia, Spain); MASC project (Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland). The main results were presented at international conferences such as the Homer symposium (Vannes, Brittany, 2011), the Weather Beaten Archeology (Sligo, Ireland, 2015) conferences or during specific sessions in the symposium of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) (Helsinki, 2012 and Glasgow, 2015) or Landscape Archeology Conference (Uppsala, 2016).

The various works carried out in the Atlantic facade show the need for projects to inventory and monitor site erosion. Storm episodes in recent years (2010, 2014) have accelerated the process of destruction and discovery of archaeological sites. In the Mediterranean, the situation is different, the climatic events are less violent, but there is a slow and gradual erosion, particularly in relation with the urbanization of the coasts. However, there are exceptions where sea-level rise, over-spells and anthropogenic pressure are accelerating the process of coastal erosion and destruction of archaeological heritage, as is the case of Kerkennah archipelago in Tunisia.

On the east and central Mediterranean coast, other initiatives have emerged, notably the project “Noé cartodata: carte de risque du patrimoine” (2006-2010) which aimed at developing a reflection on the protection of cultural heritage in the face of natural hazards. More recently, the European project CLIMA (Cultural Landscape Risk Identification Management Assessment) has taken up this issue on the analysis of soil erosion processes and archaeological remains. While these projects are mainly oriented towards monumental heritage, they have a similar basis to projects that focus on the archaeological heritage of the western Mediterranean coast.

Recent studies are changing the vision of coastal history from their archaeological and geomorphological points of view. This issue is an opportunity to present new research that is distinguished by their acuteness of restitution of these landscapes or by the innovative contributions to the coastal evolution knowledge, whether from geoarchaeological or archaeological points of view. In the end, the data produced constitutes a heritage that can lead to valorization through a mediation process. From the geological and geomorphological studies in progress on the littoral they can also integrate research and management’s tools of the littoral territory.

The second objective is the sharing of the state of the art of the erosion of the coastal heritage as well as the sharing of the methods of work concerning its valuation or preservation. We propose to publish the feedback of experiences in participatory sciences and social tools on this theme. The ultimate goal is to highlight the potential of this type of initiative in the face of weak policy action.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1383/feed0Effects of a change in temperature on ecosystems: understanding the past to predict the futurehttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1361
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1361#respondMon, 05 Nov 2018 13:59:53 +0000https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1361Continue reading Effects of a change in temperature on ecosystems: understanding the past to predict the future→]]>Most models of climate simulations and vegetation indicate that ongoing climate change will have a global and far-reaching impact on terrestrial species and ecosystems for decades to come. Field observations would probably give researchers more confidence in future projections and thus allow more appropriate decisions to be made. An original approach has been implemented based on the observations and expertise of over 40 paleoecology researchers around the globe.

Each researcher assessed changes in ecosystem structure and composition during the transition from the last ice age, centered around 20,000 years ago to about 14,000 years ago, in fossil sequences in his study area. These fossil recordings represent a unique and invaluable archive and provide concrete observations of the relationship between global climate change and the composition and structure of ecosystems. The chosen period of time is very interesting in terms of increasing temperatures and changing ecosystems on a global scale even if it can not be considered as analogous to the expected climate changes, in particular because of the concentrations of CO2 that were weaker than currently.

This expert-based approach examined several hundred published paleoecological records to assess changes in the composition and structure of global terrestrial vegetation. The synthesis of the results published in the journal Science and their comparison with simulations shows that in the case of the RCP2.6 scenario (temperature increase of about 1.5 ° C, in line with that of the Paris Agreement of 2015) the impact would be limited but in the case of the RCP8.5 scenario, terrestrial ecosystems would be strongly threatened by rising temperatures and most ecosystems would risk profound and irreversible changes such that ecosystem services and biodiversity would be irretrievably affected.

Researchers from the Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier, the Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d’écologie marine et continentale, the Centre européen de recherche et d’enseignement de géosciences de l’environnement and the Laboratoire d’océanographie et du climat were involved in this study.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1347/feed0450,000-year-old human teeth reveal Neanderthal characteristicshttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1317
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1317#respondTue, 16 Oct 2018 13:02:18 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1317Continue reading 450,000-year-old human teeth reveal Neanderthal characteristics→]]>French and Italian research teams have analyzed by X-ray scans the oldest human teeth discovered on the Italian peninsula. These specimens, some 450,000 years old, from the Italian sites of Fontana Ranuccio, 50km from Rome, and from Visogliano, less than 20km from Trieste, already show Neanderthal characteristics. The study conducted by Clément Zanolli, paleoanthropologist at Toulouse III University, has just been published in the journal PLOS One.

The history of the Neanderthals is still unknown, especially in the earliest period of their development, from the time their lineage splits from ours around the transition from the Lower and Middle Pleistocene (between 1 million years and about 650,000 years ago), to the emergence of classical Neanderthals less than 200,000 years ago. One of the key periods for understanding the origin of Neanderthals is thus between 500,000 and 350,000 years ago.

An international collaboration involving French and Italian researchers allowed to study the internal structure of dental remains from these two Italian sites using high-resolution imaging methods. X-ray microtomography analysis of various parameters such as the proportions of the dental tissue, the thickness of the enamel, the morphology of dentin and pulp cavity allowed to highlight some characteristics commonly found in Neanderthals, which clearly differ from those specific to modern humans. The results suggest a demographic division and more or less prolonged periods of isolation. One of the important factors to consider is the climate. 450,000 years ago, northern Europe was covered by ice, and northern Spain and Italy had to be at the northern limit of habitable areas.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1317/feed0The AFEQ-CNF INQUA is an association that moves!https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1308
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1308#respondTue, 16 Oct 2018 12:25:56 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1308Continue reading The AFEQ-CNF INQUA is an association that moves!→]]>An annual excursion (soon Portugal!), A biennial Q colloquium in which are awarded a thesis prize and soon a medal honoring a remarkable career (more information to come …), a specialized day with the SGF Each year (this year: the Mediterranean), funding is awarded each year to a dozen or so young researchers to help them participate in international symposia … all of which reflect a dynamic, diverse and united community.

The AFEQ-CNF INQUA is also, of course, a specialized journal, independent and of quality: Quaternary. If you have subscribed, you have already been able to test this year’s online access to the journal as soon as it is published. Next year, you can choose to go digital or continue to receive your paper fascicles: an evolution that was expected …

All this has a cost and if the AFEQ-CNF INQUA managed to maintain the same rates since 2013, it was time to make them evolve a little … but not too much!

As of 2019, the new rates will be as follows:
Adhesion only: 20 euros / year
Membership with Quaternary subscription: 60 euros / year
Membership with Quaternaire subscription for students and out-of-status: 40 euros / year

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1308/feed0Valérie Masson-Delmotte auditioned to the Senate on the consequences of a global warming of 1.5°Chttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1283
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1283#respondFri, 12 Oct 2018 13:36:43 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1283Continue reading Valérie Masson-Delmotte auditioned to the Senate on the consequences of a global warming of 1.5°C→]]>Valérie Masson-Delmotte, paleoclimatologist at the French Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE), is co-chair of the IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Working Group on Climate Physical Basis. Following the publication of a special report on the impacts of a global warming of 1.5°C, she was auditioned in the Senate. A video of her testimony and the questions and answers that followed is available on the Senate website.

In a 13-minute presentation, she summarizes in very accessible and educational terms the construction and conclusions of this report. It was prepared following a request from COP 21, arising from countries most vulnerable to global warming. This report has an unprecedented interdisciplinary dimension in the drafting of each of its chapters. It includes two very innovative chapters on action options and the benefits of acting now towards sustainable development goals.

There are undeniable advantages in limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C or more, and every half degree counts

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is not impossible but would require unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society and political will is crucial

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C can go hand in hand with achieving global sustainable development goals for improving the quality of life for all

Valérie Masson-Delmotte concludes her intervention with this message:

Every half degree counts, with respect to climate risks. Each year counts, with respect to the consequences in order to control climate change. Every decision counts. Not to act today is to increase the burden on younger generations who will have to deal with the consequences of global warming and the deployment of more difficult and riskier actions. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is not impossible, but the political will to accelerate transitions is essential.

This intervention is followed by an in-depth discussion, which notably evokes alarmism, and the need for courage, the production of knowledge on the local impacts of global warming, the local to global action options, the links relating climate – health – sustainable development – eradication of extreme poverty – demography. Energy trajectories. The individual and collective responsible choices. The functioning of the IPCC and its role vis-à-vis the political community and the actors of change. Vulnerable countries and regions. The role of education and the mobilization of youth.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1283/feed0AFEQ-SGF day 2018: Climate and societal transformations in the Mediterranean world during the last 12 thousand yearshttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1241
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1241#respondFri, 28 Sep 2018 11:30:09 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1241The AFEQ-SGF 2018 day will focus on Climate and societal transformations in the Mediterranean world over the last 12 thousand years. It will be held on Friday, November 16th, at the Maison de la Géologie in Paris.

For more information, consult the program or contact Laurent Lespez (laurent.lespez@lgp.cnrs.fr).

The capacity of the room being limited, you must register as soon as possible with Laurent Lespez.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1241/feed0The complexity of ancient Mayan cities now demonstratedhttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1226
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1226#respondWed, 26 Sep 2018 15:49:56 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1226Continue reading The complexity of ancient Mayan cities now demonstrated→]]>The detection, thanks to Lidar technology, of thousands of Mayan ruins in northern Guatemala was revealed last January. Their extensive analysis was published on September 28, 2018 in the journal Science by an international collaboration in which two French researchers, a CNRS archaeologist and a geographer from the University Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis participated.

Thanks to the Lidar, 135 km2, or 70 times the study area studied so far, could be explored. First surprise: the density of human occupation in this region, much higher than we imagined until now (more than 62 000 structures identified including 12 000 for the Naachtun area). And among the other discoveries are the inter-connectivity, unsuspected on this scale, of Mayan cities between them via the construction of long roads that cross areas of hills and wetlands, the diversity of agrarian and hydraulic developments or the use of elaborate defensive systems. With the density of the occupation, it is the landscaping that surprise the most since, to take only the example of Naachtun, no less than 18 000 agricultural terraces, 5 400 drainage and irrigation channels in connection with agricultural micro-plots and 70 large reservoirs were identified. These results reveal an intensive and large-scale exploitation of environmental resources as well as risk management by the Mayan populations of the so-called classical period (150 to 950 AD).

We have just learned of the death of Jean Sommé on September 20, 2018. Jean Sommé, Emeritus Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Lille and former President of the AFEQ has been an active, respected and appreciated person in the community since the early 1960s. He had a talent for expressing himself clearly and precisely, both in his writings and in his figures and maps. He handled the concepts with rigor and did not hesitate to shake up conventional thinking and ill-founded precepts. The AFEQ-CNF INQUA, in collaboration with the SGN and INRAP, paid tribute to him last fall through a study day on the theme of the “plains of northern France” and celebrated with him the 40 years of the publication of his state thesis.

We lose a lively and passionate spirit, a colleague, a friend …
Our thoughts are with the members of his family.

A religious ceremony will be held at the Saint-Vincent Church in Marcq-en-Baroeul (North of France), Wednesday, September 26 at 11am.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1215/feed0Master 2 internship in geomorphology and sedimentologyhttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1202
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1202#respondFri, 21 Sep 2018 12:55:04 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1202A master (M2) internship is proposed in January-June 2019 in the frame of the “Référentiel Géologique de la France” program of the French BRGM (Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières).

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1202/feed0Colloquium on the prehistory of the Somme valley, November 22-24 2018https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1187
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1187#respondFri, 21 Sep 2018 10:18:56 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1187A colloquium on the state of the art knowledge on the prehistory and history of researches in the Somme valley (XIXth-XXIth centuries) will be held on November 22-24, 2018 in Abbeville, France.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1187/feed08000 years ago in Caucasus : the most ancient structures of water flood managementhttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1161
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1161#respondFri, 14 Sep 2018 14:58:31 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1161Continue reading 8000 years ago in Caucasus : the most ancient structures of water flood management→]]>Geomorphological analyses have revealed the most ancient infrastructures of water management, dated 8000 years ago, at the Georgian Neolithic site Gadachrili Gora (Caucasus). A water stream rerouting using canals induced an inundation of the Neolithic village. The hydraulic infrastructures were then abandoned. Isotopic analyses on seeds from the archaeological site were used to identify the use of the canals for irrigation.

The Gadachrili Gora site, its canals and stratigraphy of the water management structures (CAD and photos : Vincent Ollivier).

River management for water supply is generally considered to have started 5500 years BC in the Middle East, with the development of the first Neolithic societies. In the South Caucasus, proofs of surprisingly early water management were found. A multidisciplinary team associating a past vegetation team (UMR 7209 du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris) and radiocarbon dating as well as stable isotopes specialists (LSCE UMR 8212, Université Versailles St Quentin) allowed to perform a detailed reconstruction of the landscape and societies evolution in this Caucasus region.

]]>https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1161/feed0Discovery of the most ancient pencil drawinghttps://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1140
https://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/1140#respondThu, 13 Sep 2018 16:29:45 +0000http://afeqeng.hypotheses.org/?p=1140Continue reading Discovery of the most ancient pencil drawing→]]>The most ancient example of abstract drawing, performed with ochre, has been discovered on a fragment of siliceous rock in archaeological layers dated 73 000 years before present, in the Blombos cave (South Africa). This fragment holds on one of its sides nine lines, willingly drawn with an ochre fine-point pencil. It precedes by at least 30 000 years the most ancient abstract drawings using the same technique known before. This discovery was published on September 12, 2018 in Nature by an international team involving tow French labs : Pacea(1) ans Traces(2).

What is a symbol ? difficult question when the most ancient graphic designs has to be analyzed. Recent archaeological discoveries in Africa, Europe and Asia indicate an early use of symbols.

In this new article, researchers describe the most ancient known ochre pencil drawing. It was identified on a small piece of siliceous rock when analyzing rock tools from the Blombos cave in South Africa.